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School teachers that can't spell letting kids down

Hello everyone!  This is my first gripe - so be gentle! It’s a gripe about schools; in particular school materials and a lack of attention to detail when it comes to homework handed out by teachers.

My daughter (Aged 9) has returned from school this week with some new spellings to learn.

There's nothing unusual about that (or the fact that the instructions consist of a page photocopied from a Teacher's Book);  what IS odd is that of a list of eight words two were spelled incorrectly!  (Before anyone asks, I have double checked using the Oxford English Dictionary).

Dictionary, spelling, thesaurus A primary school teacher is the last person I would have expected to hand out such sloppy work. Don’t they at least run their texts through a spell checker before copying them and handing them out to the children?

So my gripe is:  How on earth are kids supposed to learn correct grammar and spelling when their books are wrong and even the teachers haven't noticed - or worse, perhaps can't actually see - the mistakes!  School teachers, particularly those that teach English should have a handle on spelling and should have complete control of the coursework they are using.

No wonder the schools are churning out illiterate kids these days!  Bad grammar and spelling drive me insane.  Am I now to suffer at the hands of my own progeny?

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Teachers must have to know how to spell before they start teaching our kids.

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Terry - 23-Sep-11 17:22 

My impersonator used the term spastic - however you have translated that into cerebral palsy. I must point out that not all muscle spasticity is caused by cerebral palsy.

-7

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Fred E - 14-Sep-11 20:51 

It was right next to the one you did see so forgive me if I don't believe you.

I am judging you in the context of your general behaviour here so it seems to me to be a convenient lie. You have no sympathy whatsoever for vulnerable people such as the disabled and elderly. I think it was your post.

+4

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Sally - 14-Sep-11 20:13 

Fred E

Why do you use the word spastic as a term of abuse?

Do you think that disabled people are a lesser form of human life?

You have said before that you have children. Any parent who teaches, by example, these attitudes to their children is a low life piece of excrement. Cerebral Palsy is a medical condition, not a joke or an insult. What a nasty excuse for a human you are - no surprise that you make excuses for the bullying of the vulnerable by pavement cyclists.

+3

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Sally - 14-Sep-11 19:56 

'You're point refers to grammar'

*Your*, not 'you're', which is a contracted form of 'you are'.

-4

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Punctuation Pedant - 14-Sep-11 19:25 

Zumba Queen :

"You're point refers to ........"

Whichever way one looks at your (not you're) misuse of English, you have no reason to criticise others. Glass houses?

-4

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MikeP - 14-Sep-11 08:54 

".........spelling is generally considered a different "bad" "

That's English? Bad is an adjective not a noun.

You should think before you get on your high horse!

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MikeP - 14-Sep-11 08:46 

GG: You're point refers to grammar, spelling is generally considered a different "bad" hence the concept of spelling AND grammar. Think before you get on your high horse!

0

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Zumba Queen - 14-Sep-11 01:35 

School teachers *who* can't spell. 'That' refers to objects.

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Grammar Guru - 13-Sep-11 22:16 

Re Scholar: I said "4.75" years as a number because it is a f****** number you douchebag and so that it's easier on the eyes of others to read through it and to shorten the length of the sentence, you "Thickhead"!!! But here you go, four point seventy-five years later

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Brendan Young - 6-May-11 07:31 

Mmmmm! It seems that Brendan Young is a right "clever little dick", or is he?
That said, I do believe that there is an element of truth to his posting, for one has only to read what he has written? His english teacher may well have let him down to some degree, but by the beginning of his last year of schooling his grammar should have already been up to standard. 4.75 years later, now that is a good example of the written word, is it not?. "Master Young", whatever spare time you have had during this last four years and nine months, it would have been better spent swotting up on your grammar instead of inciting disrespect and ridicule. But then you will quite probably go through your entire life thinking that you are a "Clever Little Dick" or should it be "Dickhead"

-7

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scholar - 25-Apr-11 19:12 

On my last year of school, at 15 years old, my long-time english teacher left to become a head-mistress at another school. She was then replaced by newly qualified male english teacher called Mr Cammock, and I started to notice how poor/sloppy his spelling was that I became the one who always corrected it the second I noticed an error (it was the best memory of my school life)!!! I always stayed on the ball for his classes everytime and had set myself a target to catch him out at least once a week!!! Everytime he spelt something wrong, I would call out "Mr Cammock, you spelt (e.g.) difficult wrong!!!" and place a mark on the tally chart I kept on him. And on one day, when I knew he was going to give us homework, I left a sheet of paper on his desk before he arrived in class saying "Mr Cammock's Homework" as a title, and below saying "Revise and study spelling and english literature". When he came into class, he went to his desk, saw the piece of paper, picked it up, read it and then smerked towards the classroom (obviously knowing it was me). And on my very last day of school, when I had to receive my certificates, my mum bought me leaving presents (chocolates) for my teachers and in Mr Cammock's card, I wrote "To Mr Cammock, (Mum thinks you deserve this for putting up with me) good luck to you and the pupils who can't spell well, From The Dictionary" and I put the tally chart (of spelling errors/corrections I kept on him, for his first year of teaching) in his card which tallied up to around 75-85 spelling errors and 2 sentencing/grammer errors!!!
Although I have left school, after 4.75 years, I have continued to get pupils, still at school, to poke at him and ask on my behalf "Brendan wants to know if your spelling has improved". I was told when one person did it, he ran down the corridor screaming, and another told me he got disciplined/given a detention when he did it, but that he would continue!!! I have even got another teacher to start poking fun at him.

+2

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Brendan Young - 19-Apr-11 21:02 

get a life and stop being a spastic..

everybody makes mistakes.. stupid woman

+4

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toby - 17-Jan-11 21:22 

I'm currently trying to get onto teacher training and thought some experience in the classroom would serve me good for my application so I've been working as a classroom assistant for 12 months. The first teacher I worked with had 25+ years of experience and was excellent at her job. Now I'm stuck in a classroom with a guy who can't spell simple words like cupboard, grammar, describe...literally every day I am correcting his mistakes on the whiteboard, not to mention his inability to know when to use an apostrophe. The kids are digesting this information and will presume a word is spelled correctly as this guy is the teacher. He also refuses to teach chimney sums as he thinks it's old school teaching; let the kids work it out for themselves 'method'. I am dejected and demoralised how a fool like this is in the classroom teaching future generations. There should be some kind of process other teachers and other members of staff can go through to highlight incompetence. At the moment only the headteacher can suspend or sack a teacher for incompetence. Like this is going to happen! It would only be more work to deal with and wouldn't exactly put the school in a good light. As soon as I'm finished teacher training I'm applying for jobs in private schools where I am hoping teaching standards will be higher. No wonder kids don't respect teachers as much as they used too - in some cases the kids are brighter and more intelligent, especially in the case of the dross I'm working with at the moment.

+4

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Mr A - 9-Dec-10 14:23 

I love them. They make my future bright! I'm going to be inundated with great job offers the illiterati cannot perform. I hope they all stay in their hoods and grunt away like animals.

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Graduate - 1-Dec-10 13:33 

Very fair gripe, my partner works at a secondary school and I can barely believe the things she has read or heard from the pupils.
As a manager I have employed kids straight from school, one only had 2 gcses and the other was a 'budding' university bound kid. Both as thick as 2 short lengths of wood and incapable of basic maths and english.
What worries me most is that these kids are the future.....the future is no longer bright!!

-1

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Mr L - 1-Dec-10 12:52 

This gripe is a fair one and I too have worries about my 8-year old daughter's new teacher. His spelling is so bad the kids notice some of the errors. It's the ones they don't notice I worry about , incorrect spellings now imprinted on their brains as 'correct' or forever confusing them. However....

.... I am trying to relax about this and some of the responses here have helped me do so! In a few short weeks of Year 4, my daughter's new teacher has filled her with an enthusiasm for school, for all her subjects, he has made an effort to get to know the kids as individuals, he's pushing my clever daughter in just the most perfect way to get the best (and more) out of her and I've heard the same from other parents. He's come out of teacher training and from what I can tell, he's someone who absolutely deserves to be a teacher and I'm glad there are men and women like him in the UK who will dedicate themselves to our kids like this, in return for little respect or pay and lots of hassle. I have decided not to be one of those parents who moan about his spelling. I've decided to be a parent who knows a good teacher, a real dedicated, passionate, talented human being, when I see one - and not wish for a walking dictionary to be inspiring my child with a love for learning and boosting her self-esteem.

No one is perfect. Not you. Not your teachers. Not your parents. If you don't realise that yet, you haven't quite grown up.

-8

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Rosie - 19-Oct-10 13:15 

It's no surprise.
Despite ever increasing rates of exam passes the actual quality of the education seems to deteriorate year by year.
Teacher training is no exception

+2

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WinstonSmith - 25-Aug-10 18:41 

I am sorry to hear of your troubles. Perhaps the problem is that you are expecting your child's teacher to be perfect, like your own child. The reality is that both people are human and all humans make mistakes. Instead of criticizing the teacher, perhaps your mission would be more successful if you picked up yourself and asked the teacher how you could help to make the classroom a better place. I am sure your kid's teacher could use help with supplies for the classroom, extra supervision for activities, or anything else the teacher needs so that more attention can be placed on your kid's spelling habits.

-3

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GFY - 2-Jun-10 11:59 

Everybody puts down the teachers but the parents need to look themselves in the mirror. Get off your ass and stop depending on somebody else all the time.

-9

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me - 28-Jan-10 00:33 

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